By Adedapo Adesanya
For the third straight trading session this week, transactions on the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed positive with a marginal growth of 0.01 per cent.
The favourable outcome came on the back of the gains recorded by CSCS Plc as the Nigerian securities depository company appreciated by one kobo or 0.1 per cent to close at N17.05 per unit in contrast to N17.04 per unit it closed at the previous session.
As a result of this, the NASD unlisted security index (NSI) moved up by 0.06 points to 752.73 points from 752.67 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N50 million to wrap the day at N621.89 billion in contrast to N621.84 billion.
However, the trading volume retreated yesterday by 92.2 per cent as a total of 56,600 units of shares exchanged hands compared with the 725,984 units of shares transacted on Tuesday.
In the same vein, at the close of business, the trading value fell by 93.5 per cent to N971,850 from the previous day’s N15.0 million, while the number of deals carried out during the session declined by 82.4 per cent to three deals from 17 deals executed at the previous session.
At the close of trades, Food Concepts Plc was the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) as it has traded 11.4 billion units of its shares worth N14.4 billion. Lighthouse Financial Service Plc occupied second place with the sale of 1.1 billion units of securities worth N546.2 million, while Geo Fluids Plc was in third place with 1.0 billion units worth N700.1 million.
In terms of value, Food Concepts Plc occupied the top spot with the sale of 11.4 billion units of its securities valued at N14.4 billion. It was followed by Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc with 456.4 million units valued at N9.2 billion, and VFD Group Plc, which has transacted 10.4 million units valued at N3.5 billion.